I've said it for years... you don't have to be 40 years old to write a book. In fact, you don't even have to be an adult. One example I've been giving recently is 9-year-old Alec Greven's book How To Talk To Girls. But, as the name implies, his book is a "How To," a collection of advice, not a collection of poems.

This week I discovered the first book of funny poetry I've seen that was written and illustrated by a kid. 11-year-old Gloson Teh of Malaysia has published his first book, a collection of poems he wrote when was just 9 years old, entitled Creative and Funny Poetry for Kids. Although Gloson has been writing for most of his life, he was inspired to start writing funny poetry after discovering poetry4kids.com. The result is this book "created by a happy kid to make your kids happy."

In addition to writing and illustrating his poetry, Gloson is also well-known in Malaysia for his blog, www.glosonblog.com, where he writes about the things he learns.

I hope you'll take the time to visit Gloson's poetry website and his blog. While you are there, be sure to read the message from Gloson's mom, where she explains about the creation and production of the Gloson's book, answers questions about Gloson, and offers some thoughts and advice to parents everywhere. And, of course, you should buy a copy of Gloson's book to help with his education and to encourage him to create more books of funny poetry.

My son, Max, decided to write a poem for his school talent show. Here's what he came up with. I guess he must have learned what he knows about poetry from me. Though his poem is a bit grosser than mine, I hope you enjoy it.

For Immediate Release Reviews - Kids (firrkids), a blog that reviews children's books, DVDs, toys, games, health products, and clothing, recently published a rave review of My Hippo Has the Hiccups. Here's a bit of what they had to say:

That fact that this book comes packaged with a CD means it comes pre-packaged with instant appeal. Never has a poetry book been so wildly popular at our house. We have listened to this well over a dozen times, and there is no sign of waning interest. Author Kenn Nesbitt makes his incredibly funny poems that much more enjoyable by personally reciting them in funny voices.

Read the rest of the review here. Thanks Firrkids!

TIME for Kids announces the winners of its poetry contest. Congratulations to the Grand Prize Winner who will receive an online author visit from me, and to the five Finalists, who will each receive an autographed copy of My Hippo Has the Hiccups. Here's what TIME for Kids had to say:

"We asked for silly, rhyming poems and more than a thousand kids across the country answered. The judge of TIME For Kids' Poetry Contest, Kenn Nesbitt, read poems on topics ranging from a sax-playing piece of cheese to homework that grows legs and runs away."

Click here to read the rest of the story.

I got a kick out of today's "Sherman's Lagoon" comic strip. I hope you enjoy it too.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that the TIME for Kids Poetry Writing Contest has ended. It's hard to say exactly how many poems were submitted, because many teachers submitted poems from each of their students. At this point I'm guessing that there may be as many as a thousand submissions. Wow!

I am thrilled that so many kids took the time to write and submit poems for the contest, and I will be reading all of the submissions over the weekend to try to pick the winners by early next week. The Grand Prize Winner and four Finalists will be announced next week on timeforkids.com.

I mentioned earlier in the month that, on his blog Gottabook, Greg Pincus is posting a new, original, previously unpublished poem from each of 30 different children's poets this month -- one per day -- for National Poetry Month. Today he posted my newest poem. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it.

Click here to read My Chicken's On the Internet.

School Library Journal blogger Elizabeth Bird today gave My Hippo Has the Hiccups the most positive review I could have hoped for. She obviously read the book cover to cover and gave it careful, consideration. Here is some of what she had to say:

"Have you ever considered the plight of the truly frog-obsessed? Or taken into consideration the ramifications of what it means when vegetables get angry? Have you thought about what you would do with a hole in the ground if you could really get one all the way to China? Or subjected yourself to image of a penguin wearing a Speedo? Time to start, folks. In 109 poems poet Kenn Nesbitt applies serious (well, maybe not TOO serious) interest to these as well as other silly questions. Puns and poems, jokes and junk, this is a book for the kid with an id. An accompanying CD contains Mr. Nesbitt himself reading thirty-nine of what he hath wrought."

I found out from my publisher this morning that My Hippo Has the Hiccups is being reviewed in the May issue of School Library Journal.

This is what they had to say:

Gr 2-5-This is a zany and at times challenging volume of more than 100 poems, 39 of which are read by the author on an accompanying CD. Nesbitt's consistent rhythms and unforced rhymes make these poems readable, but his subject choices are what will amuse children: from not-too-smart talking dogs, to angry vegetables in a stew, to goofy dreams about pink-headed zebras, everything is fair game for wild interpretations and wordplay. "Learning Languages" illustrates this well: "My mom and dad learned Latin/many years ago in school./My brother's taking Spanish,/which he thinks is pretty cool./My sister studies French/because she loves the way they speak./But I just like computers/so I'm learning Ancient Geek." Long's spare line illustrations add humorous touches. This will be a popular addition to most collections.

-- Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI

Whoops. I just discovered that I goofed when putting up this month's poetry writing contest on poetry4kids.com. I mistakenly entered the expiration date for the contest as 2004 instead of 2009, so the contest never appeared on the website. I've fixed this now, so if you've written an April Fool's Day poem for this month's contest, you can enter it now.

Please note: This it not to be confused with the Time for Kids Poetry Writing Contest, which is a separate contest that is running for this month only.